Falling Shadows
by RubyWings91
Summary: The Doctor gets a distress call from the library centuries after it was evacuated. He and Clara investigate and are shocked at what they find. Set at some point between The Rings of Akhaten and The Name of the Doctor.
1. Chapter 1

**Falling Shadows**

 **Summary:**

The Doctor gets a distress call from the library centuries after it was evacuated. He and Clara investigate and are shocked at what they find. Set at some point between The Rings of Akhaten and The Name of the Doctor.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters in the series. They belong to the BBC.

 **Chapter 1**

The Doctor checked the monitor one more time, as if it would change the information the screen displayed. It didn't, of course. But why would he be getting a call from there, from then? Those halls had been evacuated centuries before, or at least should have been at the time of the call.

Sensing his distress, the TARDIS tried to calm him telepathically by letting him hear the flow of time around them as she moved through the time stream. It was a relatively calm area of the vortex so the flow of time felt soft and smooth through the perception of the TARDIS, even though he would probably feel otherwise if he were directly exposed to it.

He acknowledged her attempts to soothe him by placing a hand on the console but didn't feel much better. His hearts felt like they were tearing in two again as he accepted that he would have to go back.

"What's wrong?" Clara asked. Usually, after receiving a distress call, within seconds the Doctor was typing in the space time coordinates into the TARDIS and they would be off to help whoever was in trouble. Instead, he was still staring at the screen.

"Oh, nothing," he said in a too joyful tone as he straitened his bowtie and started adjusting controls. "Just give me a moment and I'll get you back home until I can come to get you next Wednesday."

"Not so fast, what about the distress call? Aren't you going to take me with you to help."  
"Oh, it's nothing to worry about. I can deal with it!" He might even be able to find more information on Clara while he's there. He didn't want to bring the girl along though. He's already seen her die too many times. He didn't want it to happen again.

"I don't think that's it at all. I think you saw something on there that scares you. You don't want me to get hurt, so you're trying to protect me. Well, whatever it is, count me in. I'm not leaving you to face it alone."

The Doctor's first instinct was to argue against it but his TARDIS seconded the sentiment telepathically, despite the undercurrent of dislike and distrust that she always had with anything involving Clara. He placed his hand on the console to more clearly transmit his refusal to the Machine. In response, she flashed the image of Amy in his head, reminding him of his promise to her.

The Doctor hesitated for a long and sighed, finally giving in. The TARDIS telepathically transmitted her approval as he turned to Clara and said, "The place that this distress call originates is unimaginable dangerous, Clara. If you come, you have to do what I say, when I tell you to. Do you understand?" He stated, his joyful façade quickly replaced with one of his rarer, serious expressions.

Clara just nodded, surprised to see just how worried the Doctor was.

He shook his head and walked around the console, readjusting the coordinates and pulling the levers as TARDIS rocked and rattled. Then he could hear the whooshing shriek of her breaks and feel the jolt that came with her landing as they reached their destination. The Doctor walked to the doors as they opened it but remained within the range of the TARDIS's force field. As Clara stepped out into a room comparable in size to a small auditorium filled with bookshelves that were lit by sunlight coming through numerous windows that ran along the ceiling, the Doctor said, "Welcome to the Library."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

The Doctor watched Clara as she looked around at all the books. There were shelves upon shelves everywhere she turned. A room full of knowledge. She seemed fascinated by the dimly lit space, filled with literature. "What is this place?

"It is a collection of every book ever written, all brought to this planet," the Doctor stated. "Once, this place would have been filled with people." He looked around and added, "But when the books were shipped here, they carried some unexpected passengers. Eggs of tiny creatures, too small to easily detect without very special equipment, which can remain dormant for centuries."

"Kind of like how invasive species are shipped around in boats and planes on earth?" She queried.

"Kind of like that, yes." The Doctor stated with a small smile at the comparison before becoming serious again. "But in large numbers, these can be much more dangerous than most of the things that got moved around on your ships, even the diseases. They are called the Vashta Nerada. Something happened here to wake them up and they killed almost everyone on the planet, except those that were saved into the computer system."

"Like how I was downloaded into the World Wide Web back home?"

"No, this is more complex. It's not just a person's soul, although the computer can do that, too." He frowned, reflecting on how he had first met River Song and the way he had downloaded her into the system after she had died here. He wondered if she had faded away by now but didn't know if he could bring himself to check. He always hated endings. "It could store the whole being, mind and body." He looked into a dark corner of the room, one which did not seem to belong there. "Then I came, responding to a distress call from a team who had come to rescue these people. We were successful, but good people lost their lives in the process."

"So where are these Vashta Nerada?"

The Doctor pulled a bologna sandwich out of one of his extensive pockets and pulled the lunchmeat out from it, "I'll show you." He slowly approached the dark shadow and threw the meat into it but was surprised when it hit the ground, untouched. "Hmm, I was sure…"

The shadow started moving and the Doctor stumbled back, expecting it to attach itself to him, giving him the dooming second shadow. Instead, rather than attack him, it slowly moved toward a door into the next room and paused in the entryway.

"I think it wants you to follow it," Clara said.

The Doctor nodded but said, "Stay out of the shadows Clara and make sure to keep track of how many you have at all times. It's how they hunt; the swarm pretends to just be your shadow. Right up until they strips the flesh from their victims bones. I don't know what's going on now but they have never been so blatant about what they are and have never turned down any food that entered into their shadow before. That makes them unpredictable and possibly be more dangerous than ever."

Clara nodded in understanding. Seeing a seemingly harmless, run of the mill shadow get up and move was unnerving, even for someone who had been travelling with the Doctor. She knew better than to question the Doctor's orders right now. He knew what they were dealing with, after all, and she didn't. So, she'd do as she'd been told and trust the Doctor to get her though just as he always had.

They followed the moving shadow through multiple rooms. They eventually reached one that was darker here than the first room where they had arrived, the entire room was pitch black, with the exception of an obvious trail that seemed almost untouched by the darkness. This path led directly to one of the Library's computers. The Doctor, ever the curious soul, could not resist the urge to go across the path to the monitor despite the obvious danger. "What do you want me to see?" He asked aloud as he started to sift through the computer.

It didn't take long to find what he was searching for. "Hello, what do we have here?" he asked, surprised at what he saw. The overall population was displayed on the monitor and it wasn't overloading the system, no maxed out at a million million. In fact, it was a little less than half of that and plummeting fast.

"What is it?" Clara asked, noticing the worried curiosity in his expression.

"It's the Vashta Nerada. They're dying and at this rate, I'd guess within a matter of hours they'll be completely destroyed. But what could do that?" The screen showed that two thirds of the planet had only a few million life forms. A line seemed to surround these. Beyond it, the billions of Vashta Nerada could still be found. The computer sensors indicated that whatever was happening at that line, it was spreading through the swarm very rapidly.

The Doctor and Clara had arrived close enough to this boarder that it would probably reach them in the next half hour at the rate it was spreading. The Doctor smiled at the thought of another dangerous adventure where the clock was working against them. He'd always thrived under pressure.

But what was causing this? He wondered. Perhaps the owners of the Library had figured out how to combat the infestation. "I'm going to set it to show humanoid life," The Doctor stated. The results showed that there was only Clara. He typed in other species that lived in close proximity to the planet on an interplanetary scale, even a couple who were supposed to be extinct or shouldn't have arrived yet. No luck.

He looked at other systems and found that, in multiple locations within the areas cleared of Vashta Nerada, attempts were being made to hack the Library's computer. None had succeeded yet but the Doctor could tell whatever was doing it was good at their job and it was only a matter of time. Whatever was doing this, they were very smart.

He switched it back to show the general life forms and stared at the screen again, what could it be?

Clara also stared at the screen and after a few moments, commented "It looks like whoever it is; they're very good at wide scale exterminations, doesn't it."

The Doctor went rigid at the statement. "You're right, perhaps too good." he said, almost in a whisper as he stared at the screen, a new idea coming to him. "I hope I'm wrong this time," He added as he typed a new order for what to search for what life to look for and the screen showed the millions that it had previously with the Vashta Nerada. There were also few thousand moving in the areas where the shadow swarms still inhabited, probably either in well-lit areas, where it was still daylight, where the majority of those in the infested areas seemed to be and well above the surface where it was night, but only couple hundred seemed willing to brave the areas cloaked in full darkness.

The Doctor looked at the screen in utter disgust. "Hello again," He said in a dark tone as he continued to glare at what he saw.

"You found out what it is?" Clara asked.

The Doctor nodded as his fists clenched. "Daleks." He stated, in a tone darker than Clara had ever heard from him. "Four million, six hundred thousand, seven hundred and twenty three Daleks."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3:**

"What are Daleks?" Clara asked, "and why do they sound so familiar?" She added.

"Daleks are the most dangerous monsters in the universe. They were designed to destroy everything that's not Dalek. They are highly intelligent, extremely dangerous creatures whose only goals in life are to ruthlessly eliminate anything different from them."

He chose not to answer her second question. If she could recall what happens to her in other lives, that was one she did not need to remember. But it again brought forth the question, what was she?

The Doctor looked at the screen again and said, "If they gain access to the library, they'll have a vast source of knowledge of all civilizations that used this planet as a database." And to the souls still trapped in the system, another part of his mind pointed out but he shoved the thought and all the implications into the back of his mind and focusing on other issues the breach could bring.

"Could they have found something to call you with, Doctor? To lure you here?" Clara asked.

"No," he replied. "They would have been waiting for us the moment we stepped beyond the TARDIS's force field. Besides, they shouldn't even know I exist and therefore wouldn't be interested in me." The girl beside him had made sure of that. "Still, it would be nice to know who did call me and just how the Daleks are killing off the Vashta Nerada."

Suddenly, another thought occurred to him in relation to Clara's worry about the Daleks noticing them. He started adjusting the computers readings again.

"What are you doing?" Clara asked as he worked frantically.

"The life readings are easy public access. All that they have to do to know we're here is to set it to look for life signs that don't match theirs or the Vashta Nerada's. Two people just popping up out of nowhere is bound to get their attention." As it was, he couldn't see the short distance movement of the monsters, so he had the machine focus on life in the local zone, about a fifty mile radius from his location.

Sure enough, a couple of the nearest ones were already homing in on their location. In fact, the closest…

Instinctively, the Doctor pushed Clara and himself out of the way just as the sounds of a death ray and shattering glass reached their ears. The laser blast hit the floor right where they'd been standing and the glass fell in a glittering cascade before shattering into more pieces on it.

The Doctor and Clara had landed right into the unnaturally deep shadows. By all rights, they should both be dead but the Vashta Nerada still hadn't attacked. The Doctor found himself wondering more and more about their unusual behavior. They were being killed off and he would have expected them to be lashing out in fear, killing anything in their path. The swarm certainly wasn't ignoring them, he thought as he pushed himself to his feet, pulling Clara up with him. They had led him here after all.

Of course, he had more immediate concerns, the Doctor reminded himself as he looked up at the Dalek, ready to run if it fired again. The creature in it's black mark three travel machine came through the shattered hole and he immediately saw that it was not a modern member of it's species but a much older version. It was bulkier and had a lens at the end of it's eyestalk that looked like a target. He recognized it as one of the oldest that might have been capable of levitation, although he hadn't been sure. They'd been on the run when he'd last seen them, rebels against a new version that Davros had created and very well could have simply been too damaged to fly. Still, even if they could levitate, he wouldn't have thought they would able to be that high, as he had never seen that next model much more than a meter off the ground.

How could this creature still be alive? Daleks were never accepting of anything they considered inferior and an older version of their species would be seen as just that. This thing should have been exterminated by its own species fairly early in the time war. Yet here it was.

The target at the end of the eyestalk focused directly on him. "Scan complete, the Doctor is present." It stated in a voice that was high pitched in comparison to that of the daleks that would be made at the height of the time war.

This statement was another shock to him. That thing shouldn't have been able to recall who he was. His information wasn't in the Path Web and he had worked hard to erase anything that existed about him throughout every database in the universe. The Library was, of course, an exception to this, since the Vashta Nerada would deter information seekers but the daleks hadn't gained control of the Library's web yet and he doubted that they would have reason to look up books pertaining to him.

Sadly, he wasn't given time to begin asking any his quickly multiplying questions the dalek about either its survival or knowledge of him because it then exclaimed, "Error! Error! Scans indicate that your companion could not have survived nor have been reconverted. How is this possible? Explain. Explain!"

He glanced over at Clara to find her shaking as she stared up at the Dalek. "Why do I know you?" She asked, almost yelled.

The Doctor did not like the answer that came to his mind. To distract the Dalek from Clara and vice versa, he asked, "How are you here? I thought your generation was completely eliminated."

"Not those of us who were worthy of the Asylum, Doctor," The creature replied, it's smug pride evident in its arrogant tone. It seemed like one of a few emotional traits that had survived through the generations, despite Davros's attempts to make them feel only hatred.

"The Asylum? But it was destroyed, along with all the Daleks in it. I was there."

"We escaped before the breach was revealed." It replied smugly.

"Are all of you that are here Asylum escapees?"

"Correct."

"The other Daleks would have detected that."

It chuckled, an un-Dalek like sound that reminded the Doctor that he was dealing with a mad monster from the asylum. "Oh, we took measures to deal with them, including a separate neural network."

"That's why you still remember me." His curiosity was full blown now, "but…"

"I have answered enough of your queries!" The Dalek yelled, again surprising the Doctor with its unusual behavior. Generally they loved to talk. "Now you will answer mine. How did the Oswin human come to be here?" The Dalek asked, turning to glare at her before looking at the Doctor and saying again, "Explain!"

He glanced at the floor which the Dalek now hovered so close to before replying, "I honestly don't know but I think you have bigger concerns right now. Have you counted the shadows yet, Dalek?"

The Dalek glanced down but the second shadow that the doctor had noticed was already gone. The Daleks casing came crashing the last fraction of a meter to the ground with an ungraceful thump.

For a moment, it was still. Then it slowly spun around aiming it's weapon upwards to fire just as a white Dalek and gold of similar build as it came into view. One of the models this one had been fighting when he last saw them, The Doctor noted. Even if it managed to survive the shot the Doctor doubted it lasted long enough in its casing to experience the crash. It had fallen into some deep shadows.

The black cased horror turned back to the Doctor and Clara. "Follow," it ordered and moved slowly into the dark space of the next room, which lacked even the lighter trail that had been present here.

"What just happened?" Clara asked.

"The Vashta Nerada just ate the Dalek inside it's own protective casing. They're using it's technology to act.

"What should we do?"

The Doctor took one more look at the windowed ceiling and at the floor which no longer had the lit path. The air was so thick with the swarm that he could actually feel his skin crawl. He even felt a suspicious tickle in his throat which he wouldn't be surprised to find was caused the microscopic organisms that were now filling the air, "We follow it," he said, knowing that they really had no other choice. Not if they wanted to live.

As they walked into the room they'd come from, Clara asked, "How does that thing know me? And why did it call me by my middle name?"

"We can't discuss this now Clara."

"So you know what it's talking about?" She asked angrily.

The Doctor nodded guiltily. "We don't have time to talk about this now, though. No doubt those first two were expected to report their findings. When they don't, we'll have more company."

"Don't think you've gotten out of talking about this." Clara said as she turned to follow the mark three transport machine full of Vashta Nerada.

Finally, the Vashta Nerada within the tank like structure stopped and turned toward the Doctor, already working more efficiently than when it had spun to shoot the second dalek.

"Doctor," it stated, "It has been centuries since you last roamed in our forests. It is only under the direst of circumstances that we have called you back under our trees again."

"You're the ones who sent out the distress signal?" The Doctor asked, surprised.

"Yes," the swarm replied, a hint of desperation leaking through the Dalek's translator.

"Why can't you deal with them yourselves, you seemed to do fairly well back there."

"We are hunted."

"What do you mean, 'you are hunted'?"

"These creatures brought their own swarms. Metal swarms…nanites, the trees refer to such machines. We can't fight them. They hunt and kill us."

"Nanites," the Doctor stated, fighting the urge to glance at Clara as he said the word. "Of course. I should have realized." Then he asked, "But why call me?"

"It was you who told our ancestors to read about you. Many references can be found in the leaves. You are the greatest and most feared predator of these creatures, these… Daleks. You come to help other species that they attack. We could have called from many points in your life but this is the oldest we could reach you."

"What makes you think I would help you after all the people you killed?" He asked angrily.

"That was our ancestors. Not us. We do not live that way anymore." They sounded downright offended at the statement as the luminosity dischargers momentarily lit up with the sound of buzzing, like way too many voices were trying to talk at once and was overloading the translation device. Were they yelling at him? Arguing with each other? Having a discussion?

"Really?" The Doctor replied skeptically.

After a few moments, the buzzing stopped and the swarm became understandable again. "Yes, and it's not like they had much of a choice. They were desperate. These were not the forests they were born for and they had not realized the importance of the marks on these leaves. Nor did they know that the creatures they ate were as sentient as them. They'd believed that something so big could not be intelligent and saw their actions as little different from hunting a wild hog or a snake. And your machines were too big to comprehend. Could you comprehend one if it was larger than your tallest mountains?

"It was not until the day of your talk, not until you spoke with your TARDIS and it's translator that their understanding of the world was challenged. For maybe the first and only time in our species existence before today, our kind communicated with a giant. And after, in it's presence, they could see the markings on the leaves for what they truly were. They understood, for the first time what these forests were. And in the time they searched for you, they found so much. Histories, sciences, math, stories. Books on architecture, farming and war. Tales of true lives and expressions of imagination." They sounded awed as they spoke about it.

"It must have been overwhelming to be exposed to so much at once." Clara said quietly.

"Yes, overwhelming, life changing, revolutionary and a flock of other words that are not quite enough to say how important that was for us," the swarm responded through the dalek machinery. "And they were willing to reason with you once they realized what they were seeing. They gave you a day to save the people trapped in the wire rivers of lightning." The Dalek Casing moved forward a little as they added, "And do you know what else they did that day. They began telling the rest of the swarms. We lost the ability to understand when you left but we taught ourselves over the next years. And we used what we had already read. You changed our people that day."

"It has been many generations since then. Today, we have farms of bugs, rodents, fungi and bacteria, as the humans of your favorite planet earth used cattle, sheep, turkeys and chicken. We use spaces in the bindings for our nurseries and educate young with the books we translated. We have built a civilization on the knowledge that you opened our eyes to, Doctor. That day our ancestors met you, they never understood just how much would do for the swarm."

There was a certain reverence leaking through the dead Dalek's translation system as the last was stated. The Doctor was shocked. He would have never guessed that he'd had such an influence on these creatures…no, he corrected himself, people, they were a people. "I never thought I had so big an impact on you." He had seen that day only as a costly, painful rescue mission. One that he almost wished he'd never been called to. He never thought that the Vashta Nerada would be affected by him at all. He'd never really considered them at all beyond the threat they posed.

"We changed that day, but not quickly enough for you to have found out. You left before the swarm understood and you had to. They really would have killed you if you had stayed." The swarm replied.

"Sounds like it still happened quickly compared to how many species would react."

"Our species are used to changes. Forests are shaped by fire, winds, floods and quakes. And by changes made by other species with their dams and tree toppling."

"Sounds like you have to be as flexible as humans," He said a small smile creeping across his features despite the situation they were in.

"That is a compliment from you?" It was a query, not a statement.

"Yeah. It is."

The tone changed as they continued, becoming darker and more desperate, as it had been when the conversation started. "These are our forests, the only ones we have ever known. And now our home is being destroyed. And we can barely defend ourselves from the threat. It is a force that has only ever been truly stopped by the Doctor. The very Doctor whom started us on our way to what we are now. You. We need your help now, Doctor. Our swarm needs it as the people you helped evacuated did… no, as the people of earth needed it when they were stolen by the very species attacking us now."

"Yes, I'll help. Of course I will." The time lord replied.

"Thank you Doctor."


	4. Chapter 4

**Falling Shadows: Chapter 4**

The Doctor straightened his bowtie as he once again looked at the screen and considered his current situation. It was one thing to say that he would help stop millions of rampaging Daleks from destroying all life on a planet. It was another one entirely to figure out how he was going to do that.

The Vashta Nerada could easily take on the Daleks themselves. It was the nanites that were the issue. If he could find some way to remove them from the equation, the tiny organisms they were attacking could take care of most of the Daleks, themselves. Especially if some of them were models lacking gear for levitation or dealing with the vacuum of space, which was likely, he thought as he recalled a few of the models he'd seen at the asylum.

He tapped his fingers as he thought about the problem. Maybe the Library's computer was strong enough to hack into the new path web that these Daleks had created. If he could do that, he might be able to solve the whole problem, not just the nanites, from here. Still, if he established the connection with the Dalek system and failed, he might very well be opening a back door to the library's system for the monstrosities to come in and take over. If the computer security failed, the Daleks would have full access to the archives and anything that happened as a result would be his fault. No, that approach was far too risky.

He momentarily switched the screen back to monitoring the local area and frowned as he saw that group of Daleks were approaching them in V formation, like a flock of geese. He was disturbed to find that they already responding. It was too quick for them to have come to the conclusion that something was wrong if they were waiting for the ones that had died to return. Perhaps they had seen their numbers dip in this area through the Library's screens.

They probably had another ten minutes at best before the hateful beasts reached them. That was okay, he tried to reassure himself, and it was amazing what could be accomplished in ten minutes. It might as well have been an eternity between them.

He couldn't bring himself to believe these thoughts but vowed not to let the worry show on his face. For the sake of those who were counting on him, he couldn't afford to. "How are the Daleks even controlling the nanites?" he asked aloud as he switched the screen back to the data files. "That many machines must be running on some sort of signal. That they brought them here means that the signal must be in a portable device, otherwise the Daleks would have had to reconstruct them when coming to this planet."

"We would never have allowed such a thing." The swarm in the travel machine stated. "we know what Daleks are. Their swarms came before they did."

The Doctor nodded and said, "The key is shutting down the signal. If we can do that, the Daleks will lose control of the nanites. They might be permanently ruined if we could do that, if we're lucky."

"Can we do that from here?" Clara asked.

"I was considering that," the Doctor replied, "but I don't think we can without risking giving the daleks an easy way to get to the computer systems. If they take the computers, they get everything that the library has to offer. They'll have information on thousands of civilizations, maybe millions, that they'll be able to use to destroy them. We can't risk it." He sighed. "We'll have to find the source and destroy it there."

"Can you find out where it is."

"With this computer, definitely," The Doctor said as he typed on the keyboard frantically, staring at the screen, concentrating on what he was seeing. After a few minutes, he finally looked up and said, "there are three signals powerful enough to be for the Nanites. I can rule one out because it is from the Library itself. Of the other two, there's one on the surface and one coming from somewhere just out of orbit. Hopefully it's the first."

"What if it's not?" Clara asked.

"Then, most likely, we'll have to find a way to board a dalek ship, survive the crew, destroy the source of the signal, get past the daleks again and get off the ship."

"Then we definitely want it to be the one on the ground." Clara said.

The Doctor flipped the setting again and saw that the team of Daleks was fast approaching. "We can use the TARDIS to get closer, plus I might have some supplies there that we could use to buy us a little time." And, more importantly, shield them both from the nanites. "I think it would be a good idea to move before the next wave of Daleks get here."

"And how long until that happens?"

"About two and a half minutes, maybe."

"Some of us desire to accompany you in your hunt." The mechanical voice from the travel machine stated.

The Doctor looked at the Dalek travel unit, studying it for a moment, thinking about the general life readings he had seen earlier. In a few minutes, the nanites would reach this point and all the Vashta Nerada that were here would be dead. He looked around the room at the ever increasing darkness that had become so thick, it seemed like you actually could cut through it with a knife. Not just the figure of speech that the humans use, either.

And they were revealing themselves to be sentient, intelligent, reasoning beings. They also had the knowledge of many of the books here and had learned ways of living without eating other people for centuries. The only reason they'd lashed out at the Daleks is because they'd been given no other choice.

Surely he could trust them in these desperate times enough to let a few shadows worth on his ship. The Doctor nodded and said, "Of course you can." And suddenly he heard Clara gasp as the crawling sensation that he'd felt on his skin for some time now suddenly increased tremendously before ceasing. He looked down to note that the shadows that had occurred on him naturally were now a great deal darker. He also had quite a few shadows stretching away to meld with the surrounding darkness.

He looked over at Clara to see that she was playing host to the same eerie effect.

"Clara, are you alright."

"Yeah, it just felt a little…"

"Creepy…yes. Probably because we're letting something we are instinctively scared of, and with good reason, take up a position that leaves us very vulnerable to them." He glanced at the stolen dalek technology and said, "No offense."

"We have read about it," they responded. "That is part of the reason we asked."

"And I greatly appreciate it."

"There is not much time Doctor. We can shield you but the Daleks may yet prevent you from reaching the TARDIS. If you are still here when the metal swarm invades our stand, we will die and you will be completely exposed.

He nodded seriously and said," Come on, Clara, let's go."

"We will provide cover," he heard from the travel machine as the light above them seemed to dim to nearly nothing, darker than a cloudy night on earth. Only the dimmest of light allowed them to see their way as they moved forward, even the nearest shelves almost fading from site as they charged forward. The sound of their footsteps had also lost their echo, The Doctor noted.

As they walked through the room where they had encountered the first Daleks, they heard the reinforcements arrive. "Scanners detect interference from the infesting swarms, unable to determine the presence of other life forms."

Another voice stated, "Investigate. Two Dalek life signals disappeared here after the arrival of foreign life forms were detected."

"Approach with caution, the swarm is extremely hostile," Another voice warned.

"We obey," four or five overlaying Dalek voices cried out together.

As the Doctor glanced back to see that he could just barely make out the forms of the daleks above through the darkness brought on by the Vashta Nerada. He felt a shiver crawl up his spine at the sight. Both because of the Daleks themselves were so close and the power of the Vashta Nerada whom were hiding them from the monsters. He took a deep breath before he continued into the next room.

Suddenly, one of the voices called out ahead, "I have a visual on The Doctor's TARDIS. The Doctor is present."

"Can you reach it?" Another called.

"Negative, the Vashta Nerada surround it and the forcefield is active."

"Keep a visual. All others scout the area for the Doctor and any companions he might have."

"We obey," replied the demented mechanical chorus again.

The Doctor grabbed Clara's hand as they rounded a corner, knowing the room at the end of this hallway will be the only one between him and the one with the TARDIS but that both rooms had a glass ceiling. As the doors swung open, he heard one of the Daleks call out, "movement detected!"

He heard the shot of their laser weapon followed by a sizzling sound and felt a jolt comparable to some shocks he has received while rewiring his TARDIS, which generally are annoyingly painful but not dangerous to him. How many Vashta Nerada had just died to protect him from that shot? Around him, he heard what sounded like a soft sigh as he telepathically picked up what seemed like a wave of misery and anger. It was so weak he would have suspected the source was somewhere in the distance, if it had not come from all around him. The Vashta Nerada were so many and so emotional that they had put enough energy into their communication that he could detect it.

"They are moving toward the TARDIS." The Dalek shrieked as The Doctor and Clara opened the final doors between him and his TARDIS. And there she was, in the middle of the room, calling out to him, shining the light from atop her police box disguise. The Daleks circled above it but dared not come down where the shadows could reach them.

The Doctor felt a wave of relief at the site of her unharmed. He telepathically called back to her as he moved closer, assuring her that he and Clara were coming.

Suddenly, a large sphere dropped into the darkness between them and the TARDIS. The Doctor saw as he approached that it was a single Dalek hovering in a force field. Only this Dalek should not have either capability. It was ancient, with a grey travel machine that had black spheres, a rather small eye lens and luminocity dischargers that were little more than tiny nubs in on the top of it's casing. This individual was clear proof that these Daleks were upgrading their technology.

He looked back at the shape of the TARDIS not too far behind it, along with the shape of more Daleks above, hovering just out of reach of the Vashta Nerada. He heard his ship call out to him telepathically in fear and concern and mentally assured her that he was still alright.

The Dalek hovered so that the eyestalk was parallel to the ground as it focused the optic at the end at eye level with the time lord. "Doctor," it's small, rounded Luminosity Dischargers lighting up and dimming with both syllables.

The tone that it stated his title in sent a shiver up his spine. It was comparable to the Daleks that had been in intensive care. "I'll take it that we've met before." The Doctor stated, recalling Oswald's mention of planets the Daleks in the intensive care unit were supposed to have been collected from after facing and surviving their ultimate enemy in the field, despite the fact that all the Daleks in that room had clearly been time war models. Now he knew where the proper Daleks for it had disappeared to.

"Yes." It replied before suddenly reaching out toward the Doctor's chest with it's manipulator arm, causing him to jump back but stopped as it neared the edge of its force field.

The Doctor began to circle the Dalek, trying to hide his discomfort at the series of events that were unfolding. He pulled Clara with him so that he was between her and the creature at all times. "Shooting me isn't enough for you any more is it, Dalek?" He hoped to lead the Dalek to believing that he was just trying to unnerve it, when in reality, he was trying to get closer to the TARDIS. He continued to talk, hoping to distract it from his actual intentions, "But you can't grab me without putting down your force field." He glared at the Dalek as it repositioned itself so it was once again between him and his TARDIS. "And if you drop it, the Vashta Nerada will kill you before you can touch me."

"There are little more than a thousand wells until our nanites arrive here. The Vashta Nerada will be exterminated and you will be our prisoners." And didn't it sound excited for that.

The Doctor rubbed his wrist as he recalled what the nanites at the Asylum had done to Clara. He was trying to think of a way past this thing. If they could make it within the range of the TARDIS's force field, then they would be safe.

The Dalek noticed his motions and stated in an almost joyful tone, "You are right to be afraid, Doctor."

He prepared to reply when a recognizable buzzing sound filled the air, only changing long enough for the familiar voice to call out, "you will pay for defiling our forests with your metal and pollutants," before continuing loudly. The Doctor, Clara and the Dalek all looked up toward the source of the buzzing, which seemed to be in one of the rooms nearby. The sound of a laser opening fire could be heard and one of the Daleks above crashed down while the others broke formation.

"Where is it?" One called out.

"I have no visual." Another called.

As another shot rang out and a third voice called out, "It's firing from in the swarm."

One of the Daleks dodged downward to avoid the shot, right into the shadows. It came crashing to the ground. The Doctor noted the smaller, more rounded shapes of its own communication devices, marking it as another member of the species that was way too old to be airborne without adjustments made to it's travel machine.

Then the downed Dalek's upper casing spun around and it opened fire on the dalek blocking the Doctor's path, the beam barely penetrating the more advanced beings force field as it's eyestalk swiveled toward the offender... offenders, the Doctor reminded himself.

The Doctor gave a thumbs up to the Vashta Nerada in the casing as he slipped by the distracted dalek. They fired again as the silver and black Dalek rotated it's body, which thankfully, had not be remodeled to spin in the center, along with it's other upgrades.

The grey Dalek shot at the other mark three and showed that it's weapon was amongst the things that had been upgraded. The blast reduced the top half of the older travel machine to a mass of twisted, red hot metal and another sigh like sound could be barely heard as the Doctor sensed the telepathic expression of misery again. The monster then called out, "The swarm is controlling the attacking travel device, not a rogue."

Of course, it was all the time the Doctor needed. He projected a set of images to the TARDIS from his mind; him snapping his fingers, a timer with three seconds left and the shields going up. He snapped his fingers and the TARDIS dropped her shields for three seconds, letting the Doctor and Clara both get in before reestablishing the protection.

They turned to see the Dalek returning it's attention to them. "Can't get us now, can you?" Clara stated.

Ignoring the shots overhead, the Dalek hovered up to the force field. "It is of no matter. The Doctor will not flee," It said to Clara before addressing the Doctor directly. "You will leave the protection of your TARDIS soon. You will desire to exterminate us before you go. That is your nature Doctor. Only, this time, you will not succeed. Nor will you escape us."

"And what makes this time so different from the last time we met."

The Dalek leaned in closer, pressing it's shield against the TARDIS force field so that the Doctor could see the surfaces of both turn shimmering white, repelling each other slightly as a crackling sound filled the air and a smell of ozone filled the space around him and Clara. "I am not your only survivor here, Doctor and all the others will be just as pleased to hear that the time for our vengeance has come." The Dalek looked up at the others being fired upon before looking at the Doctor again and moving back before flying away, the crackling of the TARDIS shields quickly ending as it returned to normal.

"We have gathered all the necessary information," The mad monstrosity called out to the others, "report back to the base of operations. We must report our findings," the last part was stated with a last quick glance at the Doctor.

From above, the other Daleks called out, "we obey" and followed their leader, flying away.

"If it wanted vengeance, why didn't it just kill you, earlier?" Clara asked.

The Doctor had a good idea why but he decided not to worry Clara with it right now. This time, when the TARDIS tried to comfort him, he let it. "Come on." He said, "We have work to do," and pushed the doors of the TARDIS open, rushing inside.

He turned on the TARDIS monitors and watched the screen to make sure that the Daleks had left as he worked to show his TARDIS what he wanted to do. Emotions had always been fairly easy to express between them, the Doctor gaining more understanding of that with his TARDIS in a few centuries than most time lords did in their entire lives. Physical sensations were a bit trickier but they'd gotten there. Of course, ever since her time in a body, they had been able to express things by images, even if they still couldn't communicate in words. Right now, he was trying to express an idea that she was extremely uncomfortable with but finally she agreed.

Once the daleks were well out of range, the doctor snapped his fingers, signaling for the TARDIS to open her doors to and then proceeded to turn off her shields.

"What are you doing?" Clara asked.

"The Vashta Nerada just devoted what they assume is their last moments in life to protecting me from harm. How many of them just died out there? I'm going to return the favor as best I can."

He looked out of the TARDIS to see that the shadows remained outside the range of his force field, even though he had dropped the barrier. He telepathically invited them in, knowing it had to sound like some great stadium sound system in comparison to what they use to communicate amongst themselves. At first the shadows around the TARDIS still creeped forward slowly, the Vashta Nerada seeming unsure. Then they quickly picked up the pace and began to rush into the TARDIS.

"Don't get too comfortable, you're out as soon as we've dealt with the Daleks," he said, knowing the TARDIS was translating his words for them, even if he could not hear their response due to their size.

He waited a few minutes, allowing them to rush in. Then the form of a familiar, black Dalek casing appeared from the darkness and landed beside the entrance where it did not impede the flow of evacuation but he could clearly see it. "You are letting us flee to your ship?" The swarm within it asked, surprised.

"Only until I deal with your Dalek problem. Do you lot want to come, too?"

"The air shells…shield the one Dalek carapace had… is it vacuum proof?"

"Yes," the Doctor replied.

The eyestalk looked past him, into the TARDIS but the swarm within said, "we must stay, then. We need to obtain some of those carapaces. If all else fails, we can place some of our eggs in those and take them to space. We can remain dormant for centuries before hatching."

They looked at him expectantly and he finally said, "When this is all over, if I don't save you here, I'll find a good planet for this lot and pick up the mark three travel units full of your eggs."

"Our people and our culture will be safe, then."

"But most of you would still be dead." He looked around and said, "I'm not going to let that happen."

"Then we all have struggles ahead. We shall leave you to your hunt then, since we have our own to do. Do not hesitate any longer. For every one of us you save this second, millions are falling prey to the nanites." the high pitched voice said and the doctor noticed that the flow of the shadows into the TARDIS had stopped. "The rest will stay to help obtain more of the Dalek carapaces. You must go now!" The Doctor nodded as he climbed back into the TARDIS "Goodbye, Doctor."

Then, all of the sudden, the Doctor's head poked out again and he said, "Oh and I just had one more idea for you before I leave…"

Notes:

The Dalek used here as a survivor was the type from the episode "Planet of the Daleks," who would have encountered the Third Doctor. Spiridon, the planet in that episode, was mentioned in Asylum of the Daleks as one of the ones the survivors were from.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

After giving the Vashta Nerada outside one last tip, the Doctor closed the Tardis doors and went back to the console.

He put up the TARDIS force fields again before making a slight adjustment to her coordinates and taking off. The Doctor thought about the Vashta Nerada, both those on his ship and the ones outside, still under attack from the nanites. If he had been told, even an hour ago, that he would be helping them like this, he would have scoffed, perhaps even been offended at the idea. Yet, here he was, saving them from Daleks, no less.

He looked around the room. Despite knowing that most of the swarm had probably rushed deeper into the TARDIS, where they would eventually find the trees, gardens and the library aboard her, there were obviously many in the room with them, using the dim lighting to their advantage. If he didn't know how the room was supposed to look, he might have even been able to convince himself that he and Clara were alone but he knew it was just a little too dark right now.

The Doctor looked at Clara, who smiled at him comfortingly and he smiled back as the TARDIS landed again. Although the shadows that had been cast around her form seemed to have dissipated, the shadows on her body were still unnaturally dark. He had no doubt that he looked similar.

It was time for a change of mood, he decided and clapped his hand together, causing Clara to jump. "Right, so we're about to go into Dalek territory that's bathed in a nanite cloud. We're going to need some proper equipment before we go out there." He quickly rushed off the uppermost level of his TARDIS and went below.

"Where are you going?" Clara asked, watching him through he grating of the floor as he opened a trunk.

"I know they're in here somewhere." The Doctor stated as he dug through a mix of toys, minor inventions, and… "Oh, here's my fez!" He exclaimed, putting it on before continuing his hunt through the box.

As Clara walked up behind him, he triumphantly exclaimed, "found them," and popped up with two dark wrist bands, both of which had a round glowing blue light that marked it as Dalek technology. It was the remaining two wrist bands that he, Amy and Rory had received before being launched at the Asylum.

The Doctor pushed away his thoughts of past companions, both recent and from lives gone by. This was not a time to focus on memories of the lost but instead think of problems found. He offered one to Clara, which she accepted, before putting the other on his own, struggling for a moment to slip it on one handed.

As he did so, Clara asked, "what are these for?"

"Oh just something to protect us from the nanites, It should shield the Vashta Nerada travelling on us as well, as long as they don't go beyond the field repelling them from us. Trust me, you don't want to go out there without one of these things."

"Will they kill us too?"

Acting as if he hadn't heard her question, he put his hand on the fez and said, with a touch of regret, "I probably shouldn't bring this. It's likely to get blown up." With a sigh, he regretfully placed the hat back into the trunk before closing it. "Another day, then." Then he looked around and said, "I'm forgetting something…"

He looked around the room as Clara tried again, "what will the nanites do to us?"

"Nothing, we'll be protected. Weren't you listening." The touch annoyance in the Time Lord's voice was enough to convince Clara not to press any harder, or he might start snapping. Of course, that anger was just hiding the fear beneath. He continued with his previous train of thought, "it's something obvious, I know it is…but what?"

He clapped his hands together suddenly, startling Clara as he said, "Oh, right. The Library. Can't have it showing where we are. That would make for the shortest lived evasion ever. The instant we step out without anything, the Daleks will know right where to find us." He reached for a drawer he had on the ceiling, which resembled one on a car dashboard and pulled out what looked like mixed parts of a calculator and an ipod, with a full sized radio antenna. He turned it on, extended the antenna to it's full length and tucked it all into a pocket on the inside of his coat.

"What was that?" Clara asked

"Oh, just something to interfere with the computer systems display. It will still show what grid we are in of the library but not the exact location. They'll be searching a chunk of territory at least twice the size of England to find us. Of course, it won't show where the Daleks are either and I have a feeling the whole lot of them might end up chasing us. It probably won't take them very long to figure out where our target is either. We're probably heading for their base of operations on the planet."

"Wonderful." Clara said sarcastically.

The Doctor frowned worriedly as he took a moment to straighten his bowtie again, when he turned back toward Clara he had a smile on his face as he asked, "Ready to go?"

"With you? Always." She replied.

He nodded and snapped his fingers as they approached the exit doors, telepathically bidding the TARDIS farewell and accepting in her expression of worry for him and her warning for caution. When wasn't he careful? He replied. He sensed her telepathic laughter from her in response as he closed the door.

* * *

She was the cloud, flowing across the planet in an unstoppable wave. All that stood before her that was not Dalek life fell, be it the smallest plant sprouting in a crack in the cement, the newborn mouse trying to nurse from it's mother with it's eyes closed or the weakling shadow swarm that tried to stand before her. She was killing billions of life forms in a matter of seconds. Soon, she would engulf the whole planet, like a manipulator easily wrapping around a sphere, disinfecting it of unwanted infections of lesser species as she enclosed the nanite shell around it.

Still, she would much rather be attacking a planet with sentient life, species to change into unwitting slaves or better yet geniuses that she could transform, making them into Daleks. Killing these organisms was useful for their immediate plans but would hardly have any long term impacts on them.

Of course, they weren't carrying enough raw materials for the nanites to applythem over a broad scale anyway, so she wouldn't have been able to convert whole planets even if they had come across them anyway. This wouldn't be a few humanoids crashing into a planet but millions or billions of them. She might never be able to convert that many in a single shot. Drones would have had to exterminate most of the life instead.

Suddenly, she was shaken from her thoughts by an unexpected barrier to her swarm. The number of Vashta Nerada at the edge of the cloud swelled up, slowing her progress forward, although certainly not stopping her. What had made them stopped fleeing? Perhaps they had saturated the remaining space? But that didn't matched her estimations, based on how many she had encountered in the first wave.

Suddenly, muffled by a wall of solid metal, a deep mechanical voice called through to her, "Nanite Controller!" and her concentration was broken. She was once again a Dalek restrained within the confines of her shell, her mind disconnected from the nanites that she commanded, leaving them to act on their automated protocols.

She flipped a switch with a tentacle and her activated luminosity dischargers and sensory systems as she looked through the view screen at the Time War Dalek that had parked outside her travel unit and angrily queried, "Why the Disturbance? I was working on weapon designs!" This sounded more productive than admitting that she had been devoting unnecessary attention to her nanites.

She instantly recognized the Great Strategist. He may have looked like a regular soldier, to the naked eye of a humanoid, but the readings on a Dalek's scanners made him easily recognizable to other members of his species. This had kept many of the higher ranking Daleks alive in the field by making it harder for the Gallifreyans to locate and target them specifically.

The Dalek before her was one of the key generals for facing the Time Lords during The Last Great Time War. His schemes had helped them move forward across Time Lord Territory across space and time when others could figure nothing out to overcome their enemy in the field.

He had been one of the last Daleks sent to the Asylum before the final, disastrous battle. The Great Strategist had lost his mind. He had been ranting about the Daleks needing to retreat, claiming the Time Lords had some secret protocol to guarantee victory over the Daleks… it all sounded rather ridiculous, actually.

Still, his madness was relatively brief. The silence that fell on the Pathweb when the Daleks attacking Gallifrey were exterminated had sobered the other Dalek right up. He had been essential to their escape of the Asylum, predicting the actions and behaviors of the main Dalek force so that they could come up with a plan to escape and evade the larger, better-armed force.

Gallifrey… Oh how she would have enjoyed having the opportunity to work through her nanite swarm there. Creeping in and enslaving gallifreyans left and right. Moving to leak into the Time Lord Citadel to use the alternate program on all the horrid Time Lords like she had that genius that had been on the ship that crashed onto the Asylum's surface a year before it's destruction…

The Strategist interrupted her line of thought, which had progressed for a fraction of a second, by stating, "The Doctor has surfaced. He has come in is his final form."

In her capsule, she tensed in fear and excitement. "I have not sensed any intelligent life!"

"He was beyond the reach of the Nanites. The Vashta Nerada helped him escape us."

So that's why the resistance had increased. The Vashta Nerada were shielding him. Of course, this also suggested that they may be in possession of some intelligence. Maybe she would collect a sample of them in a future invasion of another planet to find out. If they were sentient, it would be the smallest ever documented organism to be so.

Still, there was something else that required far more attention right now. "We predicted that the Doctor would eventually come!" Both she and the Great Strategist had told the Asylum Oligarchy that the Doctor would eventually find them whether they were attacking other species or not. Although most had only considered it a possibility and not an eventuality, they had set up plans in case he appeared.

She couldn't wait to play her role! "Has the task force been deployed?"

"Affirmative. That and the other protocols we set in place have been employed." The Great Strategist replied "Can your special program be deployed from here?"

"No. It is not preplaced into the programming of the main swarm. I will have to download it into a small group of nanites and release them at close range. I suspect that Regeneration may not be his only defense. I'll need to be in close quarters with him to guarantee success."

"We cannot risk it." The Great Strategist replied, "If he exterminates you, the Nanites will fail and release the Vashta Nerada on any grounded Daleks without shields.

"You can!" she responded. She was willing to take the risk. She wanted this opportunity so badly, to be the one to bring ruin to the Doctor. "Just be sure no grounded Daleks are too close to the swarm to retreat to the lifts before they reach them."

"And what of the other uses for your nanites?"

"They are worth risking for this opportunity. You know this."

"It is dangerous to gamble with the Oncoming Storm."

"Then come with me and increase my chances of success." She replied. "You want this as much as I do."

He was silent for a moment. She knew what he was thinking. He shouldn't. Risking one of the key Daleks of the Oligarchy was dangerous. Two was so much worse. They both played important role to the Asylum Daleks, and, despite the conclusions of the latest Paradigm, they were still critical to the continued survival of their species.

On the other hand, her words were true, too. A chance to witness the end of the Doctor…

The Nanite controller looked out of a viewport onto the planet below and stated, "Somewhere down there, the Storm rages. Come with me and see it crash beneath our nanite cloud." My nanite cloud, the Nanite Controller thought quietly as she continued, "You can bear witness to the true end of the The Last Great Time War, the extinction of the Time Lords, the fall of our greatest enemy and the start of a new age for Dalek kind."

She looked back to see that the other Dalek was still staring out the window. "Don't you want to be our vengeance upon the Doctor for taking our victory and nearly annihilating our species with the Moment."

"Dalek Kind would have never existed if he hadn't done that. Nor would Davros or Skaro."

She rolled her eye, knowing he was referring to the crackpot idea that had gotten him tossed into the Asylum. Apparently, he wasn't as over it as she had thought. She wasn't about to argue over it though. "Will you accompany me?" She asked, growing impatient. "Confirm!"

It looked back at her and said. "Affirmative. We will bear witness to the end of the last Time Lord together."

The Nanite Controller blinked slowly, feeling shamefully satisfied with the answer.

* * *

Notes:

Sorry for taking so long to update this. I ran out of completed chapters and this one was a challenge to figure out how to write. Although hopefully in the future they won't take as long as this one, the rest of the chapters will probably be posted more than a week apart from each other.

The last piece of advice that the Doctor gave to the Vashta Nerada between the previous chapter and this one will be revealed in a future chapter. The idea that I will eventually reveal was given to me by a friend when we were discussing Doctor Who together.

I assume that, as long as the Doctor lives, some Daleks may not consider the Time War over and may be angry at other members of their species for feeling otherwise. Some of these Daleks might have been Daleks sent to the Asylum before and during the Time War. The ones made after it had historical accounts but never experienced it directly, so might be more willing to consider the Doctor's use of the Moment the end (I consider the Day of The Doctor a changed reality, rendering the Moment as an event that never happened in the way that The Doctor's enemies "never were" in "The Big Bang." At this point in my view of the DW continuity, the Moment was still an event that occurred at this point and even if it wasn't, the Daleks don't know that yet.)

If the Nanite Controller seems too articulate, I have taken some liberties, since she has been declared insane. Also, Daleks have displayed abilities for being abstract (Caan). Furthermore, although I haven't come across the story, there are references that the Daleks are capable of poetry.

I chose to give the Daleks sexes for a couple reasons. First of all, they originate from species that had males and females, although the sexes would no longer be important to the species, as Daleks do not feel love or attraction and Dalek reproduction is not sexual but through creation (progenitor, mutations, formed from individuals of previously existing species). I didn't want to be referring to a Dalek as "it" when writing a scene centered on their point of view, although I still may use 'it' when looking at the point of view of other beings who can't distinguish this difference, like the Doctor. I assume the Daleks can tell only because it would be indicated in their scanners.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, despite how brief it was. Sorry about the super long notes section.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"We need to speak to Cal." The Vashta Nerada stated from within the Dalek casing as they approached one of the machines that used to be used for requests by the humans. For a moment, they waited without response. Finally, they added, "The Doctor has a plan!"

Suddenly, there was a large amount of whirring and clicking. Then the machine turned to reveal a face, not of a child but a woman. "Cal is busy, she can't come here, now."

"You are the sacrifice." The Vashta Nerada stated as some of them recalled the ancestral descriptions they had been given of the one whom plugged herself into the computer and lost her life for it. "The Doctor's mate...or his killer."

River smiled and said, "I told Dr. Moon you were reading." Then she said, "It's been so long since I've gotten to have some fun. So tell me, what does my husband have in mind?"

* * *

They had landed in a closet, the Doctor noted as he stepped beyond the doors of the TARDIS. It was a good hiding spot, he supposed. It just wasn't very exciting. Of course, there would probably be more than enough of that soon. They were about to look around in an area full of Daleks that knew he was here. Crazy Daleks, no less.

As if to support his thoughts about the danger they faced, he heard a nearby explosion and felt the ground tremble beneath his feet. "What was that?" Clara asked.

"We might find out, soon. It seems to be coming from the direction we need to go in." The Doctor replied, recalling where the TARDIS had landed in accordance to the signal.

As the he Doctor listened, he could hear the sound of Dalek voices in the distance. There were even a few which were close enough that he could almost make out what they were screaming to each other. Still, it didn't sound like there were any close enough to see them if they opened the closet door right now.

As the Doctor opened the door, he saw the remains of a security camera shattered on the marble floor. He cringed inwardly as he recalled how Cal, the girl who was the Library's mainframe, had begged him to stop through one when he'd used the sonic screwdriver on it. And here the Daleks were, wrecking the things, in true Dalek fashion.

An entire army of Daleks was being held at bay by a brave little girl. No one should have to face such horrors as that poor kid has since she was downloaded into the mainframe. At least right now, River was probably helping her in any way she could.

Perhaps that's why the Daleks hadn't breached the database, the Doctor speculated. He smiled for a moment at the idea of River and all the situations they'd faced together. This type of thing would almost be a stroll down memory lane for her.

As soon as he could, he vowed to check on the mainframe and its occupants. First he had to save them, though. He hoped they would be able to fight long enough for him to get rid of their attackers.

He glanced up at the ceiling and was glad to see that there were no windows which looked directly down upon them. It would have made the signal disruption system he was wearing about useless if they had been located again three minutes after leaving the TARDIS.

This room looked like a lounge area. There were numerous comfortable looking chairs and couches evenly dispersed throughout the room, although a few seemed to be missing.

As they entered the next room, there were more book shelves. The floor also changed to a sort of synthetic wood imitation the Doctor recognized as being originally designed in the twenty third century that was similar in appearance to mahogany. The product had possibly saved the Earth's trees from extinction, he recalled. The room's lighting was bright for the readers whom had long since left the planet behind.

The Library's system must have some sort of self-repair feature to be functioning so well after almost a millennium after being vacated… or maybe the Vashta Nerada had been taking care of it. Seeing how they had come to respect the library and its treasures, this wouldn't surprise him.

"They're offensive!" the mechanical voice stated from somewhere on the other side of the large room, snapping the Doctor out of his thoughts. He gestured for Clara to stop so that he could listen. "This whole section should be cleansed!"

"We can use these writings to gauge the nature of the species that wrote them."

The other Dalek made a noise that the Doctor would have sworn was a growl of frustration and the advocate for keeping the books added, "And we will destroy every last page of this filth, once it has outlasted their usefulness. At least we are not the drones required to read them."

"Agreed," the first speaker stated emphatically.

The Doctor pulled a couple of books out of the shelf that was against the wall. He saw that they were in the teen romance section of the Library.

After a moment of silence, the Dalek whom had just finished expressing his desire to destroy the books asked "We can at least eliminate the Twilight saga though, right?" The Dalek's tone was a desperate, almost pleading one which the Doctor was surprised to find the species capable of.

There was another period of silence. Finally, the other Dalek responded, "If we do, we must take them to the firing range for the special weapons soldiers to test their upgraded equipment upon."

"Agreed!" It replied enthusiastically, "We shall bring the books them now."

"Seriously?" Clara whispered to the Doctor.

"What did you expect creatures of hate to do with a book about love between two species?" The Doctor queried in response. "In all honesty, it's a wonder they haven't burned this part of the library to the ground. But, location aside, we have a bigger problem."

"What?"

"The Special Weapons Daleks. They're a unique group of Daleks, armed with extremely powerful weapons in comparison to the others. They are constantly being bombarded with radiation from them and all eventually lose their minds, no exceptions. I never questioned that I only saw one at the Asylum, but looking back at it now, I should have," along with so many other things he quietly added. Had he truly been so focused on the eggs and milk for the soufflés that he'd tuned out everything else wrong with the Asylum beyond Clara's explanation of having been at work there for a year? "Who knows how many they have here."

Suddenly all movements and noises the Daleks ceased. Everything was eerily silent. The Doctor felt his hearts beat faster as he looked around. Then from near and far, he heard what he had both expected and feared. The Two Daleks that had been speaking said, "The Doctor's presence has been detected." "He must be located."

Another one called out "The Doctor will be found," as it levitated. This third one was white with gold spheres, one of the Imperial Daleks.

The Doctor pressed himself and Clara back against the shelves, out of its line of site. He hoped it hadn't spotted them but his muscles were tensed, ready to run if he had to as he assessed what would be the best escape route. Luckily, it did not spot them before flying off.

There was another moment of silence before the less trigger happy Dalek stated, "the books will be here, later. We can deal with them after the situation is resolved."

"Affirmative," the other said disappointedly.

The Doctor listened to the sound of their travel units moving on the far side of the room. He gestured for Clara to be silent as they moved forward. The time lord and the human moved quickly but quietly, pausing and hiding as best they could whenever they heard Daleks approach.

They must have used their path web to send the warning, the Doctor realized.

Fortunately, most of them appeared to still be grounded. It probably took too much time and rescores to update them all at once. Good, it meant that the stairs were back in play. He'd missed the days when all of the Daleks could be outrun that way. He recalled mocking them about that on many occasions.

It also meant that the Vashta Nerada would be able to get more of them once he dealt with the nanites.

The Doctor was snapped out of his thoughts as a shadow fell between two shelving units ahead. He and Clara backed up a few pace to the end of their isle and hid themselves between the isles just as the eyestalk came into view.

For a moment, the Dalek paused at the isle. He expected to hear it call out to report that it had spotted him or detected movement at any moment.

Then there was another explosion, this one much nearer than the last, indicating they were moving toward it's origin. Knowing that the Special Weapons Daleks were nearby and getting an upgrade, the Doctor suddenly had a sinking feeling that he knew what was responsible for the explosions. In the silence that followed the explosion, he heard the Dalek down the aisle continue on it's way.

The Doctor and Clara quietly slipped past behind the creature. All these years and they still hadn't addressed their single largest physical weakness of sensory issues. It wouldn't have been hard to install heat detectors, motion sensors or something else of a similar nature. Still, the longer they took to figure out an easy solution to that problem, the better.

* * *

Cal listened to River explain the Doctor's plan with all the attention she could spare as she fought to keep the Daleks from hacking into her peaceful database. Her head pounded, both from these efforts and the damage that the monsters had done to her systems. She looked at Dr. Moon, who's consciousness she had been forced to completely upload within her system when the Daleks had destroyed his own when he had used his signals to interfere with their first attempts. Now the only role he could play was that of an advisor, since his machinery was completely destroyed.

Dr. Moon had been able to listen better as River spoke. Maybe she was misunderstanding what woman was suggesting in her exhaustion and distraction but the look on his face seemed to suggest otherwise.

"Have you forgotten what happened the day you came here."

"You know I haven't, you left my memories alone," River replied. "But even if we stop the Daleks from getting in here, they will move on to destroy millions of people a piece, maybe even entire planets. Every Dalek we kill will lead to countless lives being saved."

"We can't trust them," Dr. Moon argued.

"I'd trust the Vashta Nerada to help before I'd expect the Daleks to be merciful. Besides, they've changed since the early days. You've seen that. Today, putting our faith in them is worth the risks."

Cal found herself thinking of tales and historical accounts of people who were once enemies uniting when they faced a greater common enemy. Often, when they pulled through, it would be the beginning of an age of peace and prosperity between them. Perhaps she was being a bit of a romantic, but wouldn't it be nice if this could turn into one of those stories. Still, "If I do this, it will divert energy from my work holding off the Daleks. I won't be able to hold them off as well. I might even forget what I am, like I did when I saved all those people. The Daleks'll get in faster."

"They'll get in here anyway."

Cal nodded, because it was true. She couldn't keep fighting the monsters like this for much longer,"then we'll do it."

Dr. Moon looked uncomfortable with her decision but didn't argue against it.

She started turning her attention to the shadows of her library.

* * *

As the Doctor and Clara continued into the next few areas, they could still hear movement, usually in the distance but occasionally nearby. There were a couple of times the Daleks seemed so close that the Doctor was surprised he didn't see them as he and Clara would quickly try to hide to avoid detection if they did come out. Still, none came into view as they continued forward. They passed through studies and repair and restoration shops full of ancient books, typed manuscripts and hand written works as well as abandoned cafeterias and lounges.

All the time they were followed by the sound of Daleks near and far, but never did they see one. This continued to be the pattern as they passed through several more rooms and drew nearer to their destination. The air began to develop a smell of fumes, released by so many Mark Three travel machines that the library's air filtration systems could not completely keep up with it. And yet they moved on untroubled by the sight of a shadow from above or an eyestalk staring at them from around a corner. The Doctor would like to think it was a good sign but he had a bad feeling it was anything but that.

As they carried on he saw that not only had the Daleks shot down the security bots but also the interactive machines, specifically in the locations where they displayed people's faces. He recalled how he had told Donna it was like "donating a park bench." He hadn't really understood her horror at the sight until the moment when he'd seen her own face on one.

He shook his head. He hated being here. This place held so many painful memories for him. It seemed like a proper nightmare with Daleks roaming it's halls. Except he knew he wasn't asleep… this was real.

As they rounded a corner, he heard Clara gasped.

"What is it?" The Doctor asked.

"I thought I saw something. I was wrong, it's nothing" she stated, although she didn't sound so sure. "it was just a book shifting on the shelf."

The Doctor, looked at the shelf where she was looking, "shifting?"

"The one that's leaning against the book next to it."

The Doctor looked around again, extremely nervous. "these books have been untouched for centuries, they wouldn't just shift now."

"Maybe the explosions we're hearing shook the floor enough that the books would move a bit."

"Maybe," the time lord conceded but found that he uncomfortable with the explanation. "Come on," he finally said. "Lets keep moving," the sooner they found what they were looking for, the sooner they could get back to the TARDIS, hopefully with the situation resolved. He kept an eye on his surroundings as they continued, though.

Finally, only a short distance from the source of the signal, they found a hallway to a balcony that overlooked a huge room, comparable in size to one of the stadium that the Olympic Carrying of the Torch Ceremony had ended in that day he and Rose had helped a lost alien child return to it's family. The floor below had been cleared of books. They were overlooking a group of about a hundred and fifty Daleks.

Half of them were in travel units that varied greatly from the normal versions most Daleks used. Instead of an eyestalk, under a small dome with a flat ring marking the edge, was a grating with openings all the way around. Beneath that, instead of a manipulator arm and a regular laser, was a single large blaster with a box the Doctor knew supported the equipment for it. He also knew that, like the most modern Daleks, the upper half of the casing supporting the large gun could be rotated. In fact, it looked like their casings had been modernized to rotate quicker. He wouldn't be surprised if they had shielding, too.

The Doctor easily recognized the special Weapons Daleks despite not having seen them in years. He felt a small touch of pity for them despite their increased capacity for destruction. The other Daleks hated them for being different, despite the fact that they had constructed them to be that way.

They couldn't even argue about it, either. They were mute as there had not been room for the Luminosity Discharger system. Despite what he said earlier, he wondered if this was the real reason they all lost their minds. The things couldn't even scream like the others. The only interaction with the rest of the world left for them was with their guns.

Perhaps they eventually hated even the Daleks whom disdain them so. No doubt they probably hated themselves, too, especially if they had the same views about purity as the others.

After a few moments, he also noticed the second set of smaller guns surrounding the main larger one, which was a new addition that he didn't recognize.

The other Daleks in the room were of more normal models but had switched their manipulator arms for ones that had a revolving set of tools, which they were currently using to make adjustments on the Special Weapons Daleks' weaponry.

They were separated into two groups, both focused on the far wall. On one side of the room, the wall was a crumbled mess. On the other, a large number of chairs, tables and books were evenly spaced out. Some of these were on fire, while others were surrounded by scorch marks.

One of the Special Weapons Daleks near the crumbled section of wall was given some space as it silently moved forward. It launched a large blast at a section that was still intact. The abnormally large laser struck the wall, where it exploded against it, collapsing the section to rubble.

Then another came forward on the side with the supplies spaced out and shot a rapid fire set of weaker laser blasts, revealing the use of the smaller guns surrounding the larger. Most of the shots did not hit anything but those that did would set the targets aflame.

One of the watching Daleks stated, "Accuracy still needs further adjustment. Continue calibrations."

"We obey," some of the assistants stated.

The Doctor quietly gestured for Clara to back out of the room. He followed quickly, his back to the door. He'd never been happier about the limitations to the Daleks' vision.

"So," Clara whispered as they moved further away from the room, "those are the Special Weapons Daleks."

"Yes." He said. "And hopefully that's the last we'll see of them."

They worked their way around to approach the source of the signal from another direction. The Doctor frowned at the realization that they still weren't having any direct encounters with more Daleks. They should not have been able to get this deep into their territory without being detected. These Daleks were crazy, not careless. He was becoming increasingly certain that something wasn't right.

They came to another balcony, this one overlooking a room at least four times as large as the one where the Special Weapons Daleks were being outfitted with their new equipment…. absolutely massive. They crept over to the edge to look at the scene that stretched out four balconies below.

Daleks from every generation were rolling or hovering back and forth around several pieces of technology. In the center of the apparatus was a hole that he suspected ran to the Library's Index Computer.

The Doctor saw the communications array the Daleks had set up in the far corner and sighed. Just by looking at it, he knew that this wasn't what he was looking for. "This isn't what's controlling the Nanites,"He stated quietly.

"You sure?" Clara asked quietly

"Yes," he stated as he glanced over the equipment again.

"So, what should we do now?" Clara asked.

Suddenly, a Dalek called out, "Transmats are activating throughout the unclaimed sections of the Library but no new life forms have been detected."

"The computer system is opening them!" Another stated

"What would be the purpose of this?" Another queried.

"It is possibly an old protocol to help transport people to safer zones of the library or move defenders closer to front lines."

"Does it pose a threat now?"

"No threat is detected."

The Doctor couldn't help the small smile that spread across his face at the Daleks' final verdict. He gestured for Clara to follow him out of the room. The Time Lord looked around at the empty space uneasily as they moved forward.

"What's wrong?" Clara asked, sensing his unease.

The Doctor was missing something again. He felt like he was doing that all the time now. Here they were in the center of Dalek territory, able to reach the center of the base unhindered. It was too easy. Still he looked around and saw nothing. Nothing at…

Suddenly, the Dalek he'd encountered earlier, the one who knew him from a previous encounter flashed through his mind. "No." He said aloud.

"Doctor?" Clara queried, worried by the Doctor's tone.

"We need to get to a computer system now," the Doctor stated as he took off at a pace that Clara could keep up with. He was glad he'd taken a moment to glimpse at the facilities in this area when he worked out where the signal had been coming from in the library. Still, he wondered if they would have that enough time.

"What's going on."

"He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and made adjustments as he said, "I'll tell you in a minute." He listened as they continued but didn't expect to hear anything.

They rounded a corner and saw a computer with a teleport pad directly in front of it. The Doctor pointed the screwdriver at it and turned it on, hoping as sparks flew from the machine and the teleporter activated that the Daleks would not be able to find and stop them in the system, since it was still protected by Cal.

And suddenly a laser blast came from behind them, barely missing him.

"Go." He yelled, allowing Clara to pass ahead of him as a Dalek seemed to materialize out of nowhere beside them. He and Clara jumped at the same time but he felt a psychokinetic force push him beyond the teleporter, causing him to slam into the ground on the other side barely catching himself with his hands to prevent a face plant.

Even as the sonic spun a few feet away, he saw it flash to indicate that Clara had been successfully teleported to the TARDIS. He allowed himself to feel a quick instant of relief, despite the danger he was in. Clara was safe. If he didn't get out of this, the TARDIS could at least get her home.

"You will stand!" And with the order from the mechanical voice, the instant was gone. He pushed himself to his feet, biting back the wince as he felt his hands were rubbed raw from the fall.

He turned to face his enemies with a smile as he said, "hello, did you miss me?"

* * *

As Clara appeared back in the TARDIS, she tried to make sense of what had just happened. The Doctor had been jumping with her into this… it must have been a transport mat… and them he was barreling beyond it and out of her reach.

She looked at the TARDIS and could almost palpably sense the anger that she had come back without the Doctor.

Clara moved to the console, knowing that the machine could work on her own if she found a way to let her. "We need to help the Doctor!" she called out and the computer interface turned on.

* * *

 **Notes**

In Planet of the Daleks, the Daleks were working on trying to achieve invisibility (something I am surprised hasn't been revisited since). I was trying to find a way around using this for a while, but decide to stop fighting it and just put it into the story.

Also, I noticed in The Witch's Familiar that the one Special Weapon's Dalek Present could speak. I am going to assume that was an update, since I had that scene done before the episode came out.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'll try to get the next chapter out soon. I currently have a rough draft done but want to change a few scenes correlate it to future chapters that are in progress.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The Moment Clara appeared alone in her console room, Sexy instantly knew something was wrong. As the temporal scattershot of a human called out to her for help, Sexy suppressed the urge to blame her for whatever had happened to her thief out of spite.

Once, she might have suspected that the young human girl… was it a girl? Yes, her thief called her the Impossible Girl… might have purposely left him to die. When this anomaly had spread across her thief's past, she had been suspicious of the beings intentions with her beloved Time Lord. Usually, things that followed him so closely had dark plans for him. But, in the time since her thief had invited this one, from which all the others seemed to branch off from not far into her future, Sexy had become sure that Clara did not mean to hurt him.

Still, Sexy resented the Impossible Girl for inserting herself into the time stream that used to belong to her Thief alone and the complications that seemed to surround her that keep almost derailing her Thief's course through space and time. The TARDIS could recall what the Doctors time wound was like before the Clara Anomaly appeared all across their history. The girl's time line had hybridized The Doctor's so much that the time lords detected it and changed the reason her thief left while trying to understand what they saw.

Reality was far more stable around her Thief pre-Impossible Girl and that was saying something, considering how funny it had become from the ripples, waves and paradoxes created by his actions. Sexy saw it as sheer luck that his time line hadn't collapsed altogether, taking the rest of the universe with him in the first few minutes of the sprinkling of this Clara all over his time line.

So, as she turned on the personal interface, she took on Clara's form once again to express her displeasure at the Impossible Girl.

"The Doctor is absent," she said in an accusatory tone.

"The Daleks shot him before he made could teleport here. What if they killed him?"

Sexy instantly went to check her thief's time line and was surprised to find that although it was coming to an uncertain moment, she did not sense an end as a strong possibility. That was not something she associated with the Daleks. Usually, there was a larger chance they would kill him than that he would survive and he was just good at choosing… sensing?... the right way to stay alive. What did it mean, this difference? She didn't like it. Finally, she stated "The Doctor is still alive."

"We've got to help him."

Usually, she would wait for the Thief to come back to her, as between him and his pets, he would usually make it back to her fine. But she did occasionally step in during adventures. One such time was when they were on the planet circling that black hole, where she decided as she fell to move herself into that cavern and wait near the physical piece of the empowered ancient idea from before time for her thief to find her. Of course, she had just recently helped with Clara too, when her Thief was trapped in a collapsing universe. To be honest, she still wasn't completely recovered from that.

Despite how exhausting it was to do such things and how dangerous it was to get so close to Daleks, she decided that she would make this another such time. If she were in the body right now that House had put her in centuries ago, she would have taken a deep breath. There was a reason that she tried not to move when her thief wasn't around. It was a lot harder to travel without her beloved symbiont within her spaces. Still, the Clara Anomaly would be willing to help her.

"You must follow these instructions specifically."

"Just tell me what to do and I'll do it."

* * *

"Hello, Did you miss me?" the Doctor asked. Before him hovered three Daleks, all of which had clearly lived long before hover technology had been installed in their travel machines. Two of which were like the one he'd seen earlier but the third was silver with black spheres. It's lens was completely black, with the exception of a thin white ring halfway between the center and the outside of it.

"Let me guess," the Doctor said in a chipper tone as he glared at his foes, "Spiridon and Exxilon."

"You are correct." The nearest gray Dalek stated as it focused it's bullseye on him.

Suddenly he felt an invisible force pushing him down. He glanced at the silver Dalek. These had been the most powerful telekinetic Daleks he'd ever seen and this one was trying to force him to kneel. He glared down the eyestalk and telepathically flashed a range of sensations and emotions into it's head that he knew the monstrosity wouldn't be able to handle, being a creature of hate forever trapped in a metal chamber. The taste of fish and custard, the feel of being exposed to a thunderstorm and that of the cloth of bowties and scarves upon the skin of his neck; smells of chemicals and smoke, of flowers and perfumes. At the same time he threw an emotional cocktail at the creature, trying to overwhelm it with his deeper emotions, hoping his pain would drive the thing to the breaking point.

The Doctor felt the pressure pressing down on him disappear as it's concentration was shattered. It actually hissed at him and a tendril of smoke actually rose from the grating as the creature started garbling some unintelligible, albeit angry sounds at him. He watched, hoping that the emotional whammy would cause it to self-destruct, as he had witnessed others of its generation do when he'd encountered them on Exxilon. The emotional stability needed by powerful psychic beings in order to control their abilities was far beyond the capacity of Daleks. The fatality rate had been ridiculous for this group and was probably why all models afterward had only mild psychic powers in comparison.

Unfortunately, this Dalek did not emote itself into oblivion. Instead, it fell silent and pulled back for a moment to collect itself. After a moment, it stated, "I will not self-destruct on account of you, Time Lord."

The Doctor smiled at the Dalek. Despite not self-destructing, it was clear that the creature had utterly lost that psychic fight. There was a reason that the species had created the Path Web, rather than try to take on Time Lords telepathically. His species were naturally much stronger in that regard.

Then a nonfatal shot hit the Doctor's hurt leg, causing him to fall as he yelled out in pain and anger. The limb went numb as the rest of his body trembled from the shot. He looked back to see the other two Daleks hovering silently side by side. One of them finally stated "And you end up kneeling before us despite your efforts. You are now property of the Daleks of the Asylum, Doctor, to do with as we please."

"The others approach," The other Dalek in gray stated. As all three Daleks turned to looked up, the Doctor followed their gaze, trying not to let the fear he felt show in his expression. All of the Daleks whom had ever survived a direct encounter and had been recovered by their fellows were here, now.

And over the book cases they came. The Doctor looked around at the group of daleks. There was about ten grey and black daleks with dark spots in the center of their lenses and twice as many with no spot in the center, their completely white lenses marking them as even older.

But there were two leaders. The first was a golden cased Supreme Dalek with a black grate and spheres, whom he remembered from Spiridon. It was larger than the average Dalek and had three luminosity dischargers. The two that were on the top of it's travel machine were as large as a time war Daleks, rather than the tiny nubs common in the earlier generations. The final one surrounded it's eye lens, so when it spoke it's victims were forced to look away, except Daleks who's lenses adjusted for the brightness.

The other lead Dalek would have hardly stood out from the crowd. It had a solid white disk like the others of the oldest types.

The group spread out to surround him and the two leaders came forward.

"Doctor," The golden Daleks stated, it's Dischargers lighting up blindingly.

"Dalek Supreme… oops, you aren't technically the supreme now are you, being not only obsolete but also mad." He studied the being before him as he finally forced himself back to his feet as he added, " Hey, whatever happened to the ten's of thousands of Daleks I froze? I really expected to see them again after a few millennia in deep freeze. Or at least hear them, considering that they were all going to be capable of invisibility."

"The freeze mentally impaired most of the ones who were still cool enough to survive the molten ice and their cloaking system was completely ruined. I was declared insane as there was no verification that invisibility was actually achieved, despite my insistence."

"And it had nothing to do with the hallucinations of the molten ice oozing down the walls of your cockpit that took thousands of years to go away." The smaller, plainer dalek beside it stated.

"Silence!" the golden one yelled as it turned slightly toward the other.

"And where might we have met," the Doctor asked the smaller individual.

The plainer looking Dalek moved forward, in front of the others. "I am the only surviving member of the first time travel team."

The Doctor tried to place it for another moment before clapping his hands together, "Your that one that Ian and I trapped in the caves of Aridus." He came closer to get a better look, "Your team was the first specifically sent out to kill me."

"Correct." The creature stated with a hint of smug pride in it's voice as the Doctor stared down it's small eyestalk.

"If it weren't for the nanites, you'd undoubtedly be soup by now. Heck, maybe even dried soup." He started circling the two Daleks in front as their eyestalks, along with the gunstalks of the others, followed him, "But look at you! You look like you rolled out of the progenitor yesterday."

The older Dalek lifted it's eyestalk slightly in pride.

He turned around to look at the others. "And all of you are upgraded. What made you all more important than your fellows?"

"You did." The Golden one stated, bringing his attention back to it. "You didn't kill us, like most Daleks you meet."

"Our experience made us valuable." The Older Dalek added. "We were the most respected Daleks to be sent to the Asylum."  
"I'm starting to get the impression that Dalek Asylum is your standard for Paradise. Might I say, they're set a little low."

"There is no such thing as long as there are other species in the universe." The Golden Dalek.

"Right, then they're extremely low."

"You will be silent, Doctor." The obsolete Dalek Supreme commanded angrily.  
"I will not. I like talking and I'm good at it."

Suddenly the golden Dalek launched itself forward extending it's manipulator arm to his throat with seemingly impossible speed, squeezing it, cutting off his oxygen and forcing him to use his bypass system. It positioned itself so that it's eyestalk was inches away from the Doctor's face. "You will learn to obey your Dalek masters, Doctor,"

The Doctor squinted his eyes against the blinding light, but fought the urge to close them completely. He refused to give the old Dalek Spureme the pleasure of getting such a reaction.

It squeezed his throat ever so slightly more before releasing him. As he rubbed his neck, he noted that the other Daleks had come closer.

The oldest Dalek asked its larger counterpart, "Do you feel safer? Do you think that dominance display will make him any less likely to try to kill you?"

The Golden Dalek ignored the other's jibe.

"You lot really don't like working together do you?" The Doctor asked, his voice croaking slightly. "I guess it makes sense. I remember seeing younger generations than yours' start a civil war when Davros made even the slightest changes to some of them. It's a wonder you haven't torn each other apart yet.

Both turned to look at him and the first Dalek time traveler stated, "you were told to be silent, Time Lord."

"Or what, you'll kill me. I think if you were going to do that, I'd be dead by now."

"Soon, you'll wish we had." The first survivor said in a surprisingly quiet, almost gentle tone so creepy that the Doctor had to suppress the shiver running up his spine. It then turned to the team that had followed him. "Which of you knocked over that book that his companion noticed?"

One of the gray Daleks moved forward.

"You will report the Doctor's capture to the mothership while we proceed here."  
"But I will miss the beginning of his…"  
"Yes, you will." The Golden Dalek cut it off. "You should have been more careful. If you were of a lesser Caste, such as the one you originally held when you were created, you would be executed for jeopardizing the mission. That book could have been the difference between success and failure when facing the Oncoming Storm. Now go."

"I obey," it stated in dejectedly, glancing at the Doctor before taking off.

The Doctor watched the gray Dalek fly off into the sky as the others proceeded with business. He knew that Daleks were scared of him but they had always been too proud to so openly admit it to his face. It worried him that these ones had put aside that pride, as it had been one best weaknesses to use against them.

Of course, these Daleks had dealt with him personally before. The Doctor had no doubt that they had spent many hours analyzing their various previous encounters with him and how they could avoid repeating their mistakes as a group.

The older leader looked at the other gray Dalek that had been trailing him and asked, "did he give any indications for where his TARDIS is hidden before he realized you were stalking him?"

"Negative."

"The search will continue for it then. It may one day be useful to us." It stated, before calling, "Doctor."

The Time Lord, whom had been studying the Daleks around him, glared back at the speaker. "Yes?"

"You will be taken back to the control room. The Great Strategist and the Nanite Controller will soon be here to deal with you personally." The Doctor recognized the first title from the time war. He'd never personally encountered the Dalek but had heard the tales. As for the second one, he didn't recognize the title, but could easily guess what it did. Apparently, he was going to get to see the source of the nanites signal after all, he thought as his hands moved to the wristband on his arm.

He noticed the Daleks' movements become slightly erratic around him as he made the motion, gun sticks and eyestalks lurching or arms extending slightly, the natural weaving movement that came with their levitation momentarily becoming slightly exaggerated. The Golden Dalek asked teasingly, "have you guessed as why you are still alive, Time Lord."

"I don't have any regeneration energy left, it wasn't exactly hard to guess," the Doctor replied.

"We get to be the ones to break you after the Nanite Controller is finished. I hope you take at least a thousand years," the oldest Dalek stated.

"I bet he'll last twice as long," The silver Dalek called before the others glanced at him.

"He'll go mad before the Nanite Controller is done with him!" the Golden Dalek stated.

"I wouldn't place any bets while the Doctor is untouched. I expect The Nanite Controller will die as soon as it messes with The Predator. We should destroy him now for the good of all Daleks. Nothing he can offer is worth the risks of holding him alive for any amount of time."

The Doctor glanced at the last speaker, noting it's appearance so that he would be able to recognize it in the future. It looked similar to the Dalek from Aridus. It must be one from Kemble, as that is the only other encounter he had with Daleks of that generation that was listed in the Asylum database. He wondered what it's story was, this other Dalek whom would have seen his first form.

The other Daleks glared at it as the golden Dalek again lunged for the Doctor, grabbing the doctor by the chest with the plunger, which stretched out deceptively wide as it sucked onto and squeezed his chest as older Dalek swung around behind him and grabbed his upper back in a similar manner in a similar way.

The time lord knew that, if they wanted to, they could cripple or kill him with their manipulators then and there. Snapping his back like a twig or caving his chest in. Still, he knew, even as they held him painfully tight, that they wouldn't do that. It wasn't what they wanted right now.

The Doctor ground his teeth together as he was lifted off the ground and the two Daleks carried him back toward the main base.

* * *

"Cal," Dr. Moon said, "tell me again."

"I don't want to," Cal cried. Hear head was pounding, if someone had asked her what part of her system she was in, she wouldn't have been able to tell them. She could barely form the words, "I hurts so much to think about it." It hurt to think at all.

"I know, but you need to or you'll forget. So tell me again. We'll go one question at a time. Who are you?"

She took a couple of deep breaths before saying, "I am Cal."

"What are you?"

At first, she wanted to say she was just a little girl, living with her family but she knew that was wrong. She took a moment to find the right answer. She didn't like it as much as being a little girl. "I am the Library's Datacore."Then after a moment, she added, "I am its greatest defender." She added the second because it would make the question easier to answer.

"And what are you doing right now?"

"I am fighting the Daleks."

"Why."

Good question. Why was she? This was important to know. Think… Think… She winced in pain before finally saying "They are attacking us."

"And how have they done that?"

" They have destroyed many systems, including the Doctor Moon." She glanced at Dr. Moon himself, who was only being held in existence because she had given his consciousness space in her own system.

Suddenly, River came into the room. "Has anything changed?"

Cal focused her mind to try to work through her pain and see. "No," she said.

"Well it will. My husband always comes through when people need him. You just need to hold on."

Cal nodded, turned to Dr. Moon and said, "Ask me the questions again."

Dr. Moon nodded and asked, "Who are you?"

"I am Cal."

* * *

The Doctor glared at the Golden Dalek Supreme as they flew back to the large area he and Clara had just left. It silently glared right back at him. Neither said a word nor made a move psychically to attack the others mind. A good old fashioned stare down with a silent challenge that all intelligent species that depended primarily on eyesight seemed to understand instinctively.

"Enough!" The ancient Dalek supporting him from behind stated, causing the old Dalek Supreme to break it's gaze away from the Time Lord and glare at the other.

As they approached the Auditorium, the Doctor could hear the sound of Daleks hard at work, screeching at each other as they rushed about. The fumes once again heavily filled the air.

As they entered over the balcony he and Clara had been watching from earlier, all fell quiet below, with the exception of the hum of hover technology, as thousands of bullseyes, as well as solid white, black and glowing blue optics turned their gaze toward him. A few with hover technology moved a little closer, as if trying to get a better view, only to stop as a few of the Doctors captors looked at them.

The Doctor suddenly recalled how it had been when he was taken aboard the Dalek ship and called out of his TARDIS the day the earth was stolen for the reality bomb. At the time, he had assumed that the Daleks flying overhead, looking down at him had been a power display but maybe it had been curious onlookers, trying to catch a glimpse of the great enemy of their species. After all, what percentage of the Daleks he'd killed actually got to see him first.

As they landed, the Daleks whom held him released their grip on his chest and back. He rubbed his chest, the only area he could reach. He knew that their grips would leave ugly rings of bruises to match the one that was probably already forming on his neck.

Suddenly, a mechanical voice called out excitedly from nearby; breaking the silence "we have succeeded in hacking through the Library's defenses."

"Begin recording data!" Another Dalek ordered.

The Doctor glanced as a group of Daleks with their manipulators stretched over computer keys stated, "we obey!"

The words seemed to act almost like a signal, letting the group know that the time for gawking was over. All the Daleks suddenly sprang back to their tasks. Still, he could feel Daleks glances landing on him as the creatures continued sneaking glimpses of him whenever they could.

The Doctor looked upon the scene in horror, wondering how long it would take to find and recognize the people within the system.

Again, the Dalek whom had broken the silence called out, "there is excess data that we cannot translate overflowing the system. All the other data seems to be buried beneath it! Time to gain control of the system and record useful information stored within the system will take longer than expected."

"Understood. Proceed to control the system and extract the data!"

The Doctor breathed a small sigh of relief as they continued their work. It sounded like what he had discussed with the Vashta Nerada was working so far. They still had time but how long before the Daleks realized what that extra code was.

He was brought out of his thoughts as a discoid ship spun into view, swirling down and forward into the atrium, creating it's own wind as it stopped overhead, ceasing it's spin as a round platform began to descend to the ground. As it landed , the first time travelling Dalek stated, "you will step onto the lift."

The Doctor stepped forward, the Daleks whom had brought him here either surrounding him on the floor or floating above him in formation. As the lift began to ascend, the Time Lord knew the Daleks could sense his heartbeats speed up with fear as for a moment, it overcame the anger he had been using to mask it. They actually moved closer to him, intending to antagonize him, he had no doubt.

Once again, the other Daleks in the room had halted to watch as the lift moved back toward the ship. He could see pinpricks of blue all around , slowly being blocked from view as the lift took him up to the well lit room within the ship, creating appearance of a stream of light much like human cartoon had. It would have been funny under different circumstances, with a different species.

As the lift entered the ship, the Doctor couldn't help but compare it to being swallowed by some giant monster, rather than simply being brought aboard a spacecraft. He took a deep breath as the bay doors closed behind them.

* * *

 **Notes:**

When Clara was first travelled with the Doctor, The TARDIS didn't like her all that much. I'd like to think that, having a better view of time, she would see Clara as a complicated time space event and would be uncomfortable with her because of it. I would like to think that she became friendlier with Clara after the episode "Name of the Doctor" because she proves to only be in the Doctor's time stream because she is saving him from The Great Intelligence and as a result, the TARDIS is happily willing to accept her from then on.

Ever since the Hybrid was revealed in Hell Bent, I've been trying to think of a reasonable way that it being the Doctor and Clara together would work. The idea of the Hybrid referring to their mixed time line was the best I could come up with for it.

Spiridon: Planet in "Planet of the Daleks"; Exxilon: Planet in "Death to the Daleks"; Kemble: one of the planets from "The Dalek's Master Plan."

The Daleks in "Death to the Daleks" are considered by many to be the worst (in effectiveness) of all Daleks in the original Doctor Who series. These ones were prone to meltdowns to the point of self destruction (even when their technology was shut down) and easily defeated in comparison to others throughout the series. They also had a model that only appeared once ever in the series. I thought that, since their psychic abilities are touched upon in the episode, having issues with those powers seemed like a good explanation for a large portion of their problems.

In "Planet of the Daleks," Spiridon is the only planet the Doctor encounters with Ice in a molten form. The Daleks that were trapped in the molten ice were supposed to be eventually rescued by other Daleks, yet, unless I missed something, it doesn't look like they come up again in any way, shape or form. Neither does the Golden Supreme Dalek whom we see in the last episode, which is a real shame because I think it's an awesome Dalek design.

The set of episodes I am referencing for the oldest Dalek are collectively called "The Chase." Ian is one of the Doctor's first two human companions, a science teacher from Coal Hill Elementary. In the New Doctor Who series, he is actually referenced the Chairman of the Govoners of the school. "The Chase," was his last adventure with the Doctor in the TV series. I haven't looked much at other DW media but have seen references.

Unfortunately "The Dalek's Master Plan," is one of those early Doctor Who adventures for which most of the episodes are missing. So, it might be hard to choose a specific Dalek for the survivor from Kemble.. I've read about one that was on guard duty for a ship and is distracted by the Doctor talking to it until his companions sneak up behind it, cover it's eyestalk with mud and rolled it away. I'd like to think it was this one, as the readings did not mention that Daleks ultimate fate.

In the time when the episode "Asylum of the Daleks" played, although the Doctor did not have enough regeneration energy left to recover if he was fatally wounded, he did have some left, as he uses it in "Angels in Manhattan," which is later in the series, to heal River's hand. I am assuming that he used up the last of it before the point in time where this story takes place. The reason this is important will be revealed in the next chapter, although I'm sure some of you have already guessed it.


End file.
